125-year-old Court House Annex to get a face-lift

Roof, windows, clock in tower eyed for upgrades

By: David M. Zimmer
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

PATERSON - As the Passaic County Court House Annex approaches 125 years old, county officials are preparing for its restoration.
..... Passaic County's Board of County Commissioners recently moved to P.R.-qualify bidders for an exterior restoration of the historic brick structure, which first opened as the Paterson Post Office on October 1, 1899. Plans for the project include the replacement of ironwork, fencing and lighting. The clock in the building's tallest tower is also eyed for upgrades, along with its roof and windows, county officials said.
..... Characterized by its dark brick facade accented with limestone, the building;s style stands in stark contrast to the adjacent courthouse built during the same period.
... .. It is as severely Flemish as it could be," the Passaic Daily News reported in August 1899.
..... The building was designed by architect Fred Wesley Wentworth. A New Hampshire native, Wentworth helped shape the architecture of downtown Paterson with buildings such as the Elboe Building on Main Street and the First National Bank building on Ellison street. Wentworth's original plans for the post office placed the main entrance and central clock tower along Hamilton Street, but they were altered to front the much busier Ward Street, county historical records show.
..... The tall, almost church-like building came in stark home, the basement of the old First National Bank building. Yet, when it opened, it was business as usual, according to a Passaic Daily News report.
..... "The usual Sunday business was transacted without a hitch, and but for the unfinished look of everything about the interior of the building a stranger would not have suspected that the post office officials were transacting business in the First National Bank building until 10 o-clock on Sunday night," it reported.
..... The building remained the city's post office until 1933, when a new home opened along Rampo Avenue to has its 78 clerks and supply its 180 carriers. in 1899, the post office had 15 clerks and just 31 carriers.
..... County officials requested the old post office's donation for a hall of recsentatives. three years later, the county acquired 63-65 Hamilton Streets a cut-rate price of 450,000 and, in 1937, made it the Passaic County Administration Building.
..... Passaic County's administrative office moved to a new building in 1994, behind the new courthouse at 401 Grand Street. And in the mid-2010s LAN Associates led a transition completed in April 2020 that relocated several county departments, including the grand jury room, to the annex.
..... The national historic landmark remains in use in a National Register historic district alongside the neighboring Passaic county Court house. constructed between 1898 and 1903, it opened 120 years ago on January 4, 1904.

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